


The Bones of You

by HopeCoppice



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: "strong words" as they described it in the pre-episode warning, Angst, F/F, Family Issues, Hurt/Comfort, dingle logic, post-ep 04/01/18, tom waterhouse should come with his own warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 19:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13278588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeCoppice/pseuds/HopeCoppice
Summary: Charity turns up on Vanessa's doorstep in the middle of the night.





	The Bones of You

Vanessa knows, even before she opens the door, that the drunken mumbling and banging is Charity on a booty call. She’s tempted not to answer at all - she’s got to be up early in the morning - but Johnny hasn’t been sleeping well recently and if Charity goes on like this she’s definitely going to wake him up. 

 

“What do you w- woah, woah, hey, what’s wrong?” She hadn’t expected to see tears in Charity’s eyes, much less uncharacteristically sincere ones.

“She hates me, and who can blame her, ruin everything I touch don’t I. Hey, hang onto your purse, you, ‘cos you can’t change a leopard print bra. Wait, no. Can’t change a tiger’s knickers… Can’t change who I am, Ness. Same old scheming slapper. You shouldn't let me in, I'll just go.”

“What is that, reverse psychology?”

“Giving me too much credit there, babe. Not clever enough for all that.”

“Well, that's definitely a load of rubbish. Come in and tell me what's happened.”

 

“‘S Debbie, she hates me. Said I ruined her life, and Joseph’s- Tom’s- whoever he is, that I ruined his life too. Probably right, I’m bad for people.” Charity dropped dramatically onto the sofa. “Run while you can, eh?”

“Debbie said that? No, Charity, that girl loves the bones of you.”

“Ha! Never was much of a mum to her, was I? To any of them. And now Debs blames me for turning her into… well, into me, I suppose. Oh, and making her kids homeless.”

“Right.” Vanessa took a deep breath. “You’re not making any sense, mate, so I’m going to put the kettle on and we’ll see how you feel after a nice brew.”

 

The time it took for the water to boil gave Vanessa the space she needed to get her head around the reality of Charity Dingle, lying drunk on her sofa and broken up about some argument or another. The Dingles were always falling out, but she’d never seen Charity like this. She should have known it had to have been something to do with her kids, Vanessa supposed; they were the only thing in the world that could hurt Charity so badly. The woman in question was still mumbling to herself, something about tea not fixing everything, as Vanessa walked back towards her with a mug in each hand. Glancing to her left, she saw Leyla halfway down the stairs, looking worried… but then Leyla spotted Charity, rolled her eyes, and disappeared back up to bed. It was probably for the best that she didn’t get involved, actually.

 

“Right. Get this down you and then tell me again, from the beginning. What happened?”

It took Charity a while to sit up and accept the hot drink she was offered, but when she did, some of her nervous energy seemed to subside, leaving her with slumped shoulders and an expression of weary resignation. Vanessa hesitated before perching uncertainly on the seat next to Charity and waiting for her to speak.

“There was this guy, years ago, yeah? Rich guy. Tells you everything, really, I suppose, someone like me getting messed up with that sort of bloke, but yeah, so. No, wait, that’s not… there’s this guy Deb’s been seeing, right.”

 

Gradually, with plenty of false starts and a lot of creative thinking on Vanessa’s part, Charity told her the whole sorry story - two stories, actually, switching between them seemingly at random until, finally, she reached the intersection of the two narratives.

“And it turns out Tom’s not Tom, he’s Joe - Joseph piggin’ Tate, like some kind of horrible, twisted echo from my past. He’s taken everything from Debs - the car, the job, even the house and everything in it. To make me pay for his dad dying. He was a piece of work, was Chris, in the end, tried to frame me for his murder with his last breath. I guess Tom still buys it. I didn’t - I had nothing to do with his suicide, Ness, I swear.”

“I believe you,” Vanessa assured her, when it became clear that she wasn’t going to go on without confirmation.

“Yeah. Yeah, good, ‘cos Tom-  _ Joe _ \- still blames me for driving him to it. And he’s been planning all this from the start, the golf course - that’s him and all, he’s behind the access road and the rest of the development - and the car and everything, right from the start. He called my daughter a whore - how dare he? Said it was easy to buy her, because she was just like me. And then Debs, Debs turned on me, because it’s all  _ my  _ fault and I don’t care about anyone but myself, do I, I’m just some gold-digging whore and I always will be. And I can’t go home, Chas has got the kids at the pub, I don’t know about Debs, and I can’t face them, not if they really think I don’t care… and I don’t really remember getting here, I just, the cabbie in Hotten asked me where I was going and,” Charity took a deep breath and looked Vanessa in the eye, suddenly focused. “I thought of you. But now you know what I’m really like, so I figure I might as well get you binning me off out of the way while I’m already drunk.”

 

Vanessa didn’t know what to say, or how to begin to process all that information, so she reached out and linked their hands. It wasn’t the sort of gesture she would usually expect Charity to appreciate, nor the sort Vanessa would usually initiate, but she didn’t know how else to tell Charity she wasn’t going anywhere, at least until she found her words.

“Debbie’s upset, sounds like she’s had a rough day and she’s taking it out on you. You’re not a bad mum, and you’re not a gold-digging whore. Hell, if you were, you wouldn’t be hanging around me, would you? Look, none of this is your fault. This Tom, Joe, whoever he is - he’s twisted. How on  _ earth _ were you supposed to see that coming, what, ten years in the future? You’re not a bad person, Charity, and you’d never do something like this to hurt your kids.”

“God, you don’t know me at  _ all _ , do you?” But Charity sounded marginally less miserable, and Vanessa pressed her advantage.

“I do, actually. You might be a spiteful cow sometimes, and you might barge in on all Debbie’s businesses, and god knows you’ve made some mistakes in the romantic department.” Charity flinched; Vanessa ploughed on. “But we’ve all made mistakes. Remember when I was dating a teenager who mowed down some random and fled the country, leaving me holding the baby?”   
“Exactly, you’ve got Johnny to think about. Keep me away from him, it’s for his own good.”

“No, that’s not right. He thinks you’re great, has since way before Finn’s wake. He really, really likes your hair, for one thing, and you make him laugh when you’re winding people up.”

“Corrupting him already, see,” Charity snorted derisively.

“Oh, he gets  _ that  _ from his mother. When it’s not me you’re picking on, you’re really funny, Charity. But look, what I was saying is…” She had to stop and think about it for a moment. “I was saying, you’d never try and hurt your Debbie. None of this is your fault.”

 

Charity stared at her for a moment, as if preparing to argue, then seemed to decide it wasn’t worth the effort and slumped down against her, head resting on Vanessa’s shoulder. The silence stretched on for several minutes before Vanessa spoke again.

“So d’you want to kip here, then?”

Charity sat bolt upright, shifting away from her. “See, that’s what I’m talking about. We sleep together, I make you feel good, I get a roof over my head for the night. How could I have ever thought I’d got away from that life? It’s always gonna-”

“Hey. Hey, hey, shhhh. Listen to me.” She realised, too late, that she was using the same tone of voice she used to calm Johnny after a nightmare. Charity didn’t seem offended, though, just a little taken aback. People didn’t often interrupt her when she was slagging herself off. “That’s not what I’m saying. But you don’t have anywhere else to be, right? And as amazing as it is to see Charity Dingle getting snuggly, I really want to get some sleep before work tomorrow, so I thought maybe we could cuddle up upstairs for the night. Or you can have the settee, if it makes you feel better.”

“No.” Charity frowned at her. “No, I’ll bunk in with you, thanks. You really want me here, even though I’m a whiny, snotty mess that ruins lives?”

“I really do. Come on. Bed’ll be getting cold.”

 

The truth was, as much as Vanessa didn't want to admit it, she loved the bones of Charity Dingle, too.


End file.
